02 May 2016, Gland Switzerland

In 2009, UNEP and UNDP supported Sri Lanka to carry out the “Integrated Strategic Environment Assessment for the Northern Province (ISEA-North)”. The objective of ISEA-North was to ensure that the resettlement and new development activities in the Northern Region are sustainable and cause minimum damage to natural resources. The project was coordinated by the Central Environment Authority (CEA) and Disaster Management Centre (DMC) with UNDP project management support.

ISEA-North (https://db.tt/WQ8FmNvf) process brought a large number of agencies to a single network where information was shared, discussed and land use decisions were taken in a consultative manner. The consultative process and Multi-Agency co-operation aspects of the ISEA-North process have been highlighted internationally, especially by UNEP and UNDP.

After six years, UNEP and IUCN Sri Lanka are collaborating on an effort to document the ISEA-North process and experience in detail, so that the lessons learnt can be used locally and globally. The two-year project, that started in March 2016 seeks to share best practice in applying ISEAs in post-crises context, as well as facilitate and support implementation of ISEA in two other countries, namely Cote’ d’Ivoire and Nepal. Best practices of ISEA will be drawn from the experiences in Sri Lanka, Cote’ d’Ivoire and Nepal, and will be shared through south-south learning and collaboration between countries in the two regions, Africa and Asia.